Import module for use in regex function?

[vr8ce]

I have a (pip installable) python module I want to use in a Calibre regex function that does not exist in calibre's python environment. I therefore get an error when trying to save the function.

Is it possible to add external modules to calibre's python environment, not for development, but just for use in a custom regex function? IOW, I don't want to run calibre in development mode, I just want to be able to use a module that calibre doesn't have installed.

I've looked through the regex function portion of the manual, and done a bit of searching here, and have not found anything.

[kovidgoyal]

It's python if you want to import something from somewhere add it to sys.path before doing the import. Assuming your external module is compatible with the version of python it will work fine.

[vr8ce]

Originally Posted by kovidgoyal

It's python if you want to import something from somewhere add it to sys.path before doing the import. Assuming your external module is compatible with the version of python it will work fine.

Forgive my ignorance; I use python regularly, but I'm not sure how to deal with calibre's built-in one.

Do you mean my regular python's sys.path, or calibre's sys.path? The module is in the former; if I run python3 at the command line and import the module, it works fine. But doing the same import in a calibre regex function returns the error. Nor do I know what calibre's sys.path is; my local version has all version-dependent directories, so I assume calibre's does as well.

[kovidgoyal]

In the calibre function do

sys.path.append('whatever')
import your_module
do whatever you want with it
sys.path.remove('whatever')

[vr8ce]

Ahh, so add the directory where I have the module to the system path temporarily. Excellent, thanks very much; still so much in python I've never had to do.